A group of firefighters have lost their legal challenge seeking compensation for on call duties, after the court of appeal upheld an earlier ruling rejecting the claim, the legal service announced on Tuesday.

The appeal concerned firemen who sought payment for having been placed on standby duty between 2006 and 2015 while the service operated under the auspices of the police.

The firefighters argued that their claim was supported by EU rules governing working time.

In its judgment, the court ruled that the relevant EU directive on the organisation of working time does not regulate employee remuneration and therefore could not provide a legal basis for the compensation sought.

The court accepted the position advanced by the legal service that decisions regarding payment for standby duty fall within the competence of individual member states rather than EU law.

It further held that responsibility for examining the request rested with the police, which at the time had authority over the fire brigade.

Having determined that the issue was a matter of national law, the court examined whether the police had sufficiently justified its decision to reject the firefighters’ request.

It concluded that the decision had been properly reasoned and lawfully taken.

A central issue in the case was the absence of any legislative framework governing compensation for standby duty.

According to the judgment, the institution of on call service “has not been legally established” and no provision exists determining payment for time spent on standby.

The court found that the lack of legislation could not be remedied through retroactive judicial intervention.